Sara Seelhof said ranchers and hunters have been unloading dead animals along the property line of their horse ranch near Bottrel, about 20 km north of Cochrane, and the carcasses are attracting predators.Submitted

A southern Alberta woman said governments have effectively abandoned her family’s farm to marauding coyotes attracted by dumped animal carcasses.

Sara Seelhof said ranchers and hunters have been unloading dead animals along the property line of their horse ranch near Bottrel, about 20 kilometres north of Cochrane.

A dead-end road leading to her ranch has become a popular spot to dump the remains, she said.

“Hunting season is the worst for us because we get hunters down there dumping carcasses — deer, elk, moose,” she said.

“It happens constantly.”

Photos supplied by Seelhof show heaps of animal hides and bones littering grass along a treeline, remains that are mainly dumped covertly at night, she said.

Seelhof said coyotes are becoming more bold around her family and their dog.Submitted

The decaying carcasses have attracted growing numbers of coyotes that have become increasingly bold and aggressive, said the mother of three children aged three to six who’ve lived on the site for three years.

“When they come right up to my house and growl at me, I have a problem,” she said.

“I have shot in the air to scare them, and that gets them leisurely loping away, but they just keep coming back with a vengeance.”

Another time, Seelhof said she and her two dogs ran at a coyote, “and all it did was jog around us in a circle.”

“I am not a good shot and we run a horse ranch, so I’m not able to shoot freely.”

The woman said she’s afraid to let her kids play outdoors on the chance she might not be watching them, and the possibility more dangerous animals than coyotes could be drawn by the carcasses just dozens of metres from her door.

She said that last fall, the family contacted provincial Fish and Wildlife officials who came to look at the pile of dead animals she said is too large for her family to remove.

“They came and took a look and never got back to us,” said Seelhof.

The province says it does not have a carcass removal service.jpg

The family also contacted Rocky View County officials twice over the past year, said Seelhof, to see if they could take enforcement or preventive measures, such as erecting anti-dumping warning signs or a gate.

“No one has gotten back to us or come out,” she said.

“We also called the report-a-poacher line and they said they would look into it and they wouldn’t get back to us either . . . I just don’t know what else to do.”

Provincial Fish and Wildlife officers enforce illegal dumping laws and “we always ask hunters to use their best judgment to ensure that disposing of their harvested carcasses is done in a manner that considers other people who may be using the area or residing near the public land,” Justice and Solicitor General spokeswoman Ina Lucila said in an email.

But she said the ministry doesn’t provide a carcass removal service, nor does it respond to complaints about coyotes.

“Under Alberta’s wildlife legislation, municipalities are authorized to handle various species of wildlife, including coyotes, on their own land base,” she stated.

Lucila also said there’s a dedicated phone number to call to initiate Alberta Agriculture and Forestry investigations of illegal animal dumping.

In a statement released Wednesday, Rocky View County said its officials made three trips to the site last month, though adverse conditions prevented proper access.

On the third visit, no carcass pile could be found, it said.

“If there is dumping on public property – developed or undeveloped road allowances, we will go out and remove the items,” stated the county.

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